Directing

Mrinal Sen

Born May 14, 1923 · Faridpur, Bengal Presidency, British India

Died December 30, 2018 · aged 95

Mrinal Sen entered the world of arts through Indian Peoples Theatre Association (IPTA) in 1943. He made his first film 'Raat Bhor' in 1956. Deeply influenced by the leftist ideology, most of his films deal with socio-political themes and the complexities of life of the urban middle class of Bengal. His second film, 'Neel Akasher Nichey' was banned by the government for two months in 1958. Though …

Known For

Calcutta 71

Calcutta 71 · 1972

The spirit of a condemned 20-year-old student wanders through time, linking together four stories of people struggling for survival in this gritty meditation on poverty, natural disaster and political strife in India. A middle-class family's home is no match for the monsoons, while another clan's morality is compromised when famine strikes. Young boys smuggle rice, and politicians pity the poor while living in the lap of luxury.

Kaleidoscope

Kaleidoscope · 1981

Burning with a desire to be a journalist, a young man gets his chance when a publisher -- the father of a friend -- suggests that he write a story on the daily life of the people in his house (several families worth of people). The material turns out to be too incohesive and abundant to work into a pointed, thematic article, and just when he is about to give up, his younger brother asks him a simple question: "How many coal burners are there in Calcutta?" This triggers an idea for a story about Calcutta's pollution -- and the aspiring journalist dreams of myriads of burner-toting citizens invading the publisher's home demanding redress. Maybe he is finally on the way to a story that matters.

Bhuvan Shome

Bhuvan Shome · 1969

Bhuvan Shome is a lonely widower, a proud old man and a strict disciplinarian. Looking back on the trodden path, strewn with staunch determination and drab attitudes, Bhuvan Shome, a thoroughly unenchanted man, seeks escape in a holiday.

Kanch Kata Hire

Kanch Kata Hire · 1965

Kanch Kata Hire

Subrata joins his father's business that he quits due to ideological differences. What awaits his fate now?

City Life

City Life · 1990

MovieDocumentary

A kaleidoscopic panorama of the world. A visual anthology of twelve short stories by twelve innovative directors from all over the world.

The Confined

The Confined · 1993

The mistress of a wealthy man, alone in her huge apartment and terribly lonely, phones strangers in the middle of the night. One night she phones a young writer, and as the days pass and the conversations continue a relationship forms between two people who've never seen each other.

Interview

Interview · 1971

A young Indian man has been assured by an uncle that all he needs to land a lucrative job is to show up to the interview in a Western style suit, but the morning of the interview is fraught with unexpected difficulties.

The Ruins

The Ruins · 1984

Subhash is a photographer from the city, who has come to take pictures of some old temples and ruins in a village. Ruins fascinate him. While in the village, he gets acquainted with a young woman, Jamini, who has had her heart broken in the past, by another visitor from the big city. Will history repeat itself, or will she find a way out of the ruins at last?

Filmography

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Calcutta 71

Calcutta 71 · 1972

The spirit of a condemned 20-year-old student wanders through time, linking together four stories of people struggling for survival in this gritty meditation on poverty, natural disaster and political strife in India. A middle-class family's home is no match for the monsoons, while another clan's morality is compromised when famine strikes. Young boys smuggle rice, and politicians pity the poor while living in the lap of luxury.

Director

Kaleidoscope

Kaleidoscope · 1981

Burning with a desire to be a journalist, a young man gets his chance when a publisher -- the father of a friend -- suggests that he write a story on the daily life of the people in his house (several families worth of people). The material turns out to be too incohesive and abundant to work into a pointed, thematic article, and just when he is about to give up, his younger brother asks him a simple question: "How many coal burners are there in Calcutta?" This triggers an idea for a story about Calcutta's pollution -- and the aspiring journalist dreams of myriads of burner-toting citizens invading the publisher's home demanding redress. Maybe he is finally on the way to a story that matters.

Director

Bhuvan Shome

Bhuvan Shome · 1969

Bhuvan Shome is a lonely widower, a proud old man and a strict disciplinarian. Looking back on the trodden path, strewn with staunch determination and drab attitudes, Bhuvan Shome, a thoroughly unenchanted man, seeks escape in a holiday.

Director

Kanch Kata Hire

Kanch Kata Hire · 1965

Kanch Kata Hire

Subrata joins his father's business that he quits due to ideological differences. What awaits his fate now?

Screenplay

City Life

City Life · 1990

MovieDocumentary

A kaleidoscopic panorama of the world. A visual anthology of twelve short stories by twelve innovative directors from all over the world.

Director

The Confined

The Confined · 1993

The mistress of a wealthy man, alone in her huge apartment and terribly lonely, phones strangers in the middle of the night. One night she phones a young writer, and as the days pass and the conversations continue a relationship forms between two people who've never seen each other.

Director

Interview

Interview · 1971

A young Indian man has been assured by an uncle that all he needs to land a lucrative job is to show up to the interview in a Western style suit, but the morning of the interview is fraught with unexpected difficulties.

Director

The Ruins

The Ruins · 1984

Subhash is a photographer from the city, who has come to take pictures of some old temples and ruins in a village. Ruins fascinate him. While in the village, he gets acquainted with a young woman, Jamini, who has had her heart broken in the past, by another visitor from the big city. Will history repeat itself, or will she find a way out of the ruins at last?

Director

Ek Din Pratidin

Ek Din Pratidin · 1979

Ek Din Pratidin

The bread-winning daughter in a middle-class family fails to return from work one evening. The saga begins with worries at home, followed by midnight searches and finally a deepening crisis arising out of economic and moral constraints prevalent in the society. Yet the film speaks of hope and of strength hidden behind despair.

Director

Genesis

Genesis · 1986

A farmer and a weaver who have both been liberated from enslavement struggle to survive in an arid, desert landscape. To secure basic necessities, they cast their lot with a merchant, who is a man of suspicious intent but provides for them nonetheless. Things change dramatically, however, when their camp is visited by a woman.

Director

The Royal Hunt

The Royal Hunt · 1977

A British administrator with a flair for game hunting develops a friendship with a commoner who is an expert archer in an Indian village. The movie portrays the relationship between the British colonialists, and native villagers who were exploited by Indian landlords in 1920s India. This happens against the backdrop of the awakening of the Indian people against the British rule.

Screenplay

Kharij

A pre-teen servant boy dies of suspected carbon monoxide poisoning on a cold winter night in the kitchen. The household is suddenly plunged into psychological turmoil, torn between guilt and fear of a police investigation and the resulting scandal. As events unfold, the employer and his wife reveal their petty, hypocritical selves.

Director

Under the Blue Sky

Under the Blue Sky · 1959

Under the Blue Sky

Set in the turbulent 1930s, this is the story of a poor Chinese hawker selling his merchandise, Chinese silk, in the streets of Calcutta. This was the time when China was repulsing a brutal attack of militarist Japan and when an outraged Rabindranath Tagore wrote to his friend in Japan, the great poet Noguchi: “I wish your countrymen, whom I love so much, not success but remorse”. This film holds the dubious distinction of being the first to be banned (though temporarily) in independent India.

Director

The Representative

The Representative · 1964

The Representative

A young engineer marries a young widow with a child by her previous husband. In a society where taboos play a dominant role, the marital life, despite the best intentions, grows increasingly difficult and finally collapses.

Screenplay

Ek Din Achanak

Ek Din Achanak · 1989

Shasanka is a retired teacher who lives with his wife and two daughters. The family is thrown into an uproar after he goes out for a walk and disappears from their lives. Each member of the family reviews her final hours and days with him to try and discover what, if anything led to his disappearance.

Director

Talking Head

Talking Head · 2020

MovieDocumentary

An elusive actor is a rarity. Talking Head is about the actor Dhritiman Chaterji. In October 1970, Pratidwandi (The Adversary) one of Satyajit Ray’s most political films was released. It was a film about the time; the moment of anger, disenchantment, strikes, injustice and unemployment among the young. It was a film about angry youth and it introduced Dhritiman Chaterji, into film acting. A new actor in Bengali cinema, Dhritiman Chaterji acted in few of the most prominent films of the decade

(voice)

Up in the Clouds

Up in the Clouds · 1965

Up in the Clouds

A young man still to find a place in the sun puts up an innocent bluff to a young girl he chances upon. They meet frequently since then. Bluffs continue to pile up. There is no way out. In a desperate bid the young man tries to break the wealth barrier. His friend, well placed in life, cautions him. He turns a deaf ear. The inevitable happens. The young man grows wiser but pays heavily for it.

Screenplay

The Wish Fulfilment

The Wish Fulfilment · 1970

The Wish Fulfilment

MovieDramaComedy

A young boy wishes to switch roles with his father, and the wish is granted for a trial period. Mrinal Sen made this film for the Children's Film Society of India, based on a short story by Rabindranath Tagore. This happens to be the only work by Tagore that he made into a film.

Director

The Man with the Axe

The Man with the Axe · 1979

The Man with the Axe

After being accused wrongly of theft, a slightly addled servant runs away to the city, carrying as his only real possession an axe, which he claims to have killed a tiger with. He takes up life among India's throngs of city-dwelling homeless, and for a little while almost has a decent time of it. He has a girlfriend, and one good friend, and gets by through begging and doing odd jobs.

Director

Chorus

MovieFantasyDrama

A small company advertises for 100 vacancies and 30,000 apply. The applicants are all from the ranks of the poor and there is a virtual riot. Everyone around is seeking for opportunities. Among them are the applicants who desperately need the job, the photographer who is busy seeking a scoop, the village moneylender who is busy exploiting the poor, the ineffective police, the employers who are advertising posts even while a six month old strike has nearly caused the workmen to become destitute. It is a story of society captured in a tiny framework of a small business. Ultimately, the workmen, the unemployed and the farmers all get to gether to protest against this exploitation.

Director

World Within, World Without

World Within, World Without · 1991

World Within, World Without

When the elderly mother of a Kolkata middle-class family commits suicide, no one has the courage to read the old woman's diary. When the eldest son returns from Germany, his anxious questioning brings to light the disorientation experienced by the family and the way world history penetrates into the fabric of individual lives.

Director

In Search of Famine

In Search of Famine · 1981

In Search of Famine

A young, idealistic director arrives in a village to make a picture set during the Great Bengal Famine. It’s a film that he hopes will reveal the problems and privations still current in rural India.

Director

And at Last

And at Last · 1963

A film by Mrinal Sen.

Director

This, My Land

This, My Land · 2002

After Shokhina's marriage to Noor ends, she remarries Meher but faces many complications in her married life. Things get worse when Noor returns to India as a married rich man.

Director